Box Score

Nashville, Tenn. – Brittany Estes and Lauren Ford each had 11 kills to lead Lipscomb to a 3-0 (17-25, 13-25, 19-25) victory over USC Upstate Friday evening in A-Sun action from Allen Arena.

The Spartans drop to 10-19 overall and 1-12 in the league, while the Lady Bisons improve to 19-7 on the season and 12-1 in conference play.

Kayla McAvoy registered a team-high eight kills for Upstate while Kayla Eversgerd added seven and a team-best 10 digs. Lexi Gober added 18 assists and eight digs. Eversgerd now sits just six digs and 12 kills away from becoming the sixth Upstate player in program history to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career.

Estes recorded a double-double for Lipscomb as she also contributed 11 digs. Sophie Kellerman led all players with 12 digs while Bri McCombs contributed 11. Jordan Huston and Kayla Ostrom combined for 40 assists as Huston had 23 and Ostrom 17.

The Lady Bisons picked up the first two points of the first set and led by as many as four to start when a service ace by Kellerman gave Lipscomb a 10-6 lead. A kill by McAvoy, followed a service ace from Shannon Weiss, got the Spartans to within two at 8-6. McAvoy kept Upstate at a two-point deficit when her kill made it 12-10. The Lady Bisons answered with the next five points to push its lead to 17-10. Upstate got as close as five after that when a serving error by Estes cut the Spartans deficit to 19-14. Lipscomb took the first set 25-17 following a kill from Estes.

A 9-3 run by the Lady Bisons began the second set after Upstate had used an attack error by Lauren Ford to make it 4-2 early. Lipscomb broke the set open midway when, ahead 10-4, it scored eight consecutive points capped off when a service ace by McCombs increased the Lady Bison lead to 18-4. The Spartans trimmed the score to 22-10, but a service error would give Lipscomb the 25-13 win.

Back-to-back kills by Estes opened the third set as the Lady Bisons scored the opening five points. Upstate rallied with a 10-2 run of its own to trail by three, 10-7, as Eversgerd, Gober and Emily Koelling each had a kill during that stretch. Lipscomb extended its lead back to 15-7 as it took advantage of three straight Spartan errors. When a kill by McAvoy got Upstate down to 15-11, the Lady Bisons were able to extend their lead out to 22-15 with two kills in a row from Ford. The Spartans would fight back to trail 22-19 courtesy of Dominique Arnold's kill, but Lipscomb recorded the last three points to win the third set 25-19, and take the match 3-0.

Upstate travels to Northern Kentucky tomorrow afternoon to face the Norse at 3 p.m. in its season finale.

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